Last year, Dyson put out one of the weirder products, the $1,000 Zone headphones that had a removable air-purifying face visor. The Zone got a lot of attention, some of it not all that positive, and it was unclear where Dyson would go with its headphone foray after that lackluster start. Well, the answer is the new Dyson OnTrac headphones, which cost $500 and are all about performance and customization options, not air purification.
I haven't tried them yet but Dyson says the OnTrac feature best-in-class noise canceling and come in four base colors, with 2,000 customizable color combinations for their outer caps and ear cushions. Options include aluminum, copper, nickel and the ceramic cinnabar variant has a ceramic feel, Dyson says.
The headphones in red.
Geared toward audiophiles, the headphones have 40mm, 16-ohm neodymium speaker drivers and advanced audio signal processing, with a frequency range from as low as 6 Hertz to as high as 21,000 Hertz. Battery life is rated at a very healthy 55 hours with noise canceling on, and Dyson says that two high-capacity lithium-ion battery cells are "suspended in the headband for more even weight distribution."
The headphones will support SBC, AAC and LDHC audio codecs, but there's no support for Sony's LDAC or Quacomm's aptX codecs.
Another color variation.
It's unclear exactly when the headphones will be available to purchase (they are being previewed on Dyson's site), but I'll update this post as soon as I get some hands-on time with them.